Strategic

Management of
Technology and
Innovation
Product Innovations and
Assignment 1 Technology Trajectories

Your Assignment
Goal: Demonstrate your knowledge, academic skills, and the ability to link theory and practice!

Activity: Choose in your group a specific technology-based product innovation that you are responsible for.
Select a recent product innovation that was introduced in the last five years.

We recommend selecting a product innovation that you know of and are interested in1 (instead of
selecting an example discussed during lectures). Moreover, you should choose a product
innovation for which there is sufficient information publicly available and that is built upon one or
more clearly identifiable technologies2 (e.g., the ‘Amazon Kindle’ product innovation draws on the
‘E Ink’ technology). Specifically, you should ensure that there is information available on the
commercial success of your selected product innovation.3

For the selected product innovation, you should perform several analyses, which are detailed
below. In your analyses, we expect you to draw explicitly on Chapters 1 to 5 and the article by
Christensen and Raynor (2003). During the first tutorial session, we help you address the questions
explained below. Note that in this assignment, you often switch the ‘unit of analysis’ (i.e., the object
that you are analyzing, e.g., the innovation, the technology, the organization). For the sake of
clarity, we emphasized the unit of analysis in bold in the text below.

Result: This is a group assignment. In the end we expect one group report.

Evaluation: Submission via Canvas. The requirements and evaluation criteria are shown on the last page.

1
Think for example of televisions, vacuum cleaners, displays, laptops, mobile phones, noise cancelling headphones,
cameras, 3D printers, tablets, solar panel. You can consult tweakers.com and thenextweb.com for inspiration.
2
Services (including Apps and software) are hence often unsuitable because it is difficult to pinpoint a concrete
technology that the service is based upon.
3
Product innovations that are, for instance, still on Kickstarter are unsuited for this assignment because they are not
yet on the market and commercial success cannot be assessed.
 2

Structure and Content of the Assignment Report

0. Cover page followed by a page 2 with pictures and names of all team members so that the tutor can learn your
names.

1. Introduction
Describe the product innovation and the organization that introduced it.

- Indicate whether the organization was an incumbent player in the industry or a new entrant (a new
entrant can be a start-up or a player from outside the industry)
- Explain how successful the product innovation is so far. Support your claims using secondary data that
you have collected (e.g., from newspapers or online sources).
- Explain the structure of the report

2. Analysis

2.1 Determine the technology upon which the product innovation is built. If the product innovation integrates
different technologies (as is often the case), select just one core technology for this question.
- Analyze the position of the technology on the technological S-curve (Chapter 3)
- Collect data on an appropriate performance dimension of the technology and map its evolution
on the S-curve graph (e.g., follow the Kindle example presented in the Tutorial).4
- Use the Anderson & Tushman model on the technology cycle (see Fig 3.10 and related text in the book)
to explain which phase the technology is currently in.

2.2. Drawing on the information you collected, classify your product innovation on each of the following dimensions
and justify your choice.

- incremental / radical innovation (Chapter 3)

- competence enhancing / competence destroying innovation (Chapter 3)
- sustaining / disruptive (see Christensen & Raynor, 2003)

2.3. Explain whether and how the value of the product innovation depends on its technical functionality, on network
externalities (installed base), and/or complementary products (see Chapter 4).

2.4. Describe the timing of the introduction of the product innovation by the organization (Chapter 5).

- Was the organization a first mover, early follower, or late entrant?

- Which advantages and/or drawbacks were associated with that timing?

3. Discussion

Reflect on one of the following theoretical concepts based on the data you collected about the selected product
innovation, organization, and technology. To what extent is the theoretical concept helpful to understand your case
or not? To what extent offers your case evidence for or against it? Explain why.

- Anderson & Tushman’s technology cycle (e.g., do you observe the industry of your case converging to a
dominant design or not?)
- benefits of new entrants vs incumbents for different types of innovations (e.g., do new entrants indeed have an
advantage in the case of radical, disruptive, or competence destroying innovations?)
- first mover advantages (e.g., what does your case say about the factors that influence optimal timing of entry?)
- disruptive innovation (e.g., does disruption indeed start with a product that is initially inferior?)
- types of innovation (were the multiple distinctions between types of innovations useful or not?)
Finally, offer a conclusion with regard to the innovation that you focused on.

Tip: Check the Assignment Evaluation Criteria (below) carefully!

4
Take for example the iPad. For 2.1. you should select a specific technology within the iPad, for example: (1) pixel
technology of the display (a concrete performance dimension is for example pixels/inch (ppi)); or (2) computational
power of the processor (a concrete performance dimension is for example GHz); or (3) pixel technology of the lens
(concrete performance dimension is for example pixels or resolution).
 3

Assignment Rules
This assignment should be between 1500 and 2000 words (excluding the reference list). You should write this
assignment for a knowledgeable reader, meaning that you should not repeat core definitions of terms such as ‘radical
innovation’ but rather show in your application of the definitions to your case that you understand the definitions.

You should follow the APA referencing style to refer to the course literature and the online sources you have
consulted in the running text. Also, include a reference list at the end of the assignment (see http://libguides.vu.nl/b-
business-admin/incorporating_literature for further information).

The deadline for submitting the team assignment is stated in the course manual. Please submit the assignment
through Canvas. Teams that submit no report or submit the report after the deadline, receive a “1” as grade.

Assignment Evaluation Criteria

- Insight offered into the innovation (20% of the grade; concerns all sections)
o Focused on an innovation that meets the criteria
o Demonstrate profound insight in the technology underlying the innovation
o The different parts of the assignment help to explain the evolution of the innovation.

- Usage of theoretical concepts (20% of the grade; concerns Analysis section)

o Interpretation of the technological innovation with relevant theoretical concepts
o Adequate and insightful application of and reflection on theoretical concepts

- Quality of evidence and arguments in support of answers (20% of the grade; concerns Analysis section)
o Analysis of the evolution of a specific key performance aspect of the technology
o Analytical rigor in terms the quality of argumentation and quality of evidence (quantified where
possible, with sources indicated).

- Critical reflection on theoretical concepts (20% of the grade; concerns Discussion section)
o Critical reflection on the (limited) explanatory/prescriptive power of one theory/ concept.
o Just using concepts is not sufficient; the discussion has to offer an evaluation of the theoretical concept.

- Quality of writing and general reporting skills (20% of the grade; concerns all sections)
o Clear introduction and conclusion
o Consistent tone and style of writing (across sections, paragraphs)
o Clearly structured subparagraphs that are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive
o Neutral perspective (not just taking or reporting perspective of case organization)
o No grammatical and textual errors
o Concise sentences
o Adequate reference to data sources and literature sources
o Use the APA reference style consistently